Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,128

that seemed to be following her around wouldn’t dare show its ugly head around here. He thought about Chris and how none of them had stepped between her and that evil. He was determined not to make that mistake again.

“Take care of yourself,” Clara said, hugging Taylor when everyone had decided it was time to call it a night because tomorrow was school and classes.

“I’ll try.”

“Let me know if you need anything.” Clara leveled her gaze at Taylor. “Anything.”

“I will.”

There was a general leaving time, and then the house emptied out, and Taylor was alone with the three guys who she had always considered her best friends in the world. That was until three years ago when the world up-ended itself. Now, she wasn’t sure what they were to her.

Keeping her gaze glued to the carpet, she thought through everything and kept bumping up against what that dorm room looked like. Why did this stuff keep happening to her?

“Okay,” Greg said. “You get my room. I’ll take the couch.”

“Oh, gosh,” Taylor said, hating this completely. She wrapped her arms around herself, wishing she had had the guts to go with Clara. However, just the thought of that apartment building sent even more bone-chilling shivers through her. “I’m… It’s fine. I can do the couch.”

“You are not doing the couch,” Nelson said. “I’ll do the couch before you will.”

“I’m doing the couch,” Greg said firmly to both of them. “Come on. We can change the sheets on the bed right quick. You can have my whole room until you find a place.”

Really, she wanted to argue, but it wouldn’t do much good, so she trekked with the three of them down the hall. It was weird how safe she felt with them literally leading and having her back. It was like she knew instinctively that nothing bad could get to her here.

In the room, Greg and Nelson went to work with the sheets and pillows while Wes stood at the door with her. She knew his girlfriend’s assessment of her, and she cocooned even further.

“Do you need anything tonight?” Wes asked. “I can go get whatever you need.”

“Oh. Uh… No. I’m fine.”

The other two were having difficulty with the bottom sheet. Taylor wanted to tell them it was fine and not to worry about it, but every word felt destined to push her right off the crumbling ledge she felt like she was standing on.

“So are you going to try to get a new place?” Wes asked. “You’re not going back there, are you?”

She hated how practical he could be. When things fell apart, you could count on Wes’s ability to get them back together in a blink. “I… Uh… I don’t know. It was tough getting one this time around. The middle of the year and all of that. The one I had was like the bottom of the barrel, I think.”

“Huh. Sounds like it.”

“One, two, three,” Nelson said as he tossed the dark, navy comforter over the bed toward Greg. Two pillows and they were done.

“Thanks,” Taylor said, feeling like a total burden. They all surely had better things to do than to be taking care of her.

“You want one pillow or two?” Greg asked, and his dark eyes were soft with concern.

“Oh, gosh. Just one. I’m… Yeah. Just one is fine.”

“Do you want the shower tonight or in the morning?” Nelson asked, standing next to the bed with his hands on his hips. “We’re going to have to come up with a schedule or something.” He crossed his arms which were much larger than she remembered them in high school. He looked more like a pro wrestler than the young man she remembered, but maybe that was mostly because the room was so small in comparison. Whatever the cause, she dropped her gaze and fought not to think that. “What time is your class in the morning?” he asked, uncrossing his arms as he seemed to realize he looked like he was lecturing her.

Class. Her head spun. How was she ever going to…?

“I… Uh. I don’t… know really.” She shrugged. “Maybe… I’ll just push the pause button on the class thing tomorrow. I’m not sure…”

“Push…?” Nelson asked, and his face went hard. “Oh, absolutely not.”

“I just… It’s just…” Her heart slammed into that, and instantly she was fumbling for the words to explain how overwhelmed with all of it she was.

“No. No. No,” Nelson said. “You are not missing class over this.” He calculated the three of them